A CRIMINOLOGICAL INQUIRY IN ENGLISH PRISONS. An attempt has lately been made in this country to apply scientific method to the study of criminal man. A vast amount of data relating to the personal condition, social estate, and penal histories of "convicts" (_i.e._, men sentenced to penal servitude for three years and upwards) has been co-ordinated and amplified by physical measurements, by details of personal and family history, and by description of physical and mental qualities. An examination in respect of all or some of these points of 3,000 men, taken without selection from those undergoing penal servitude in English Convict Prisons, has formed the basis of this inquiry. Of this large number of sets of observations, which were made by the Medical Officers of the Convict Prisons, Dr. Goring contributed considerably more than half, and to him was entrusted the onerous task of tabulating the material of the whole. With the assistance and advice of Professor Karl Pearson, Dr. Goring was enabled to carry out this work which he has achieved with remarkable patience and ability. The main intention of this investigation at the outset was to obtain accurate information whereby the many hypotheses advanced by different schools of criminology, and especially the Italian Schools, might be confirmed or refuted. But the scope of the work grew, perhaps inevitably, beyond its original purpose, and now includes not only an analysis of the physical and mental condition of convicts, but also many data for speculations on very difficult and contentious questions as to the relative influence of "heredity," "environment," &c., on the genesis of 'criminals' generally. Dr. Goring's complete and elaborate Report, entitled "The English Convict--a Statistical Study," has been published by the Government in an official Blue-Book. It appears now as Dr. Goring's own work, carried out by a special method, and the conclusions arrived at are his own. I do not propose to attempt to criticise either his method or his conclusions, being aware that such an attempt would involve discussion of some matters on which there is much difference of scientific opinion. This work is, as far as I know, the first essay made in any country to arrive at results on criminology by the strict application of what is known as the biometrical method of statistical treatment of recorded observations. Whatever its merits or demerits may be, it at least marks an epoch in the history of criminological studies. In the pages which follow, I endeavour to present in a more simple and popular form, and, as far as possible, in his own words, an abstract of Dr. Goring's views, and of the results to which his general inquiry has led him. Students of Criminology must turn to the original volume itself for a detailed exposition of the whole case which the author so ably presents.